Aviation fuel & kerosene
Airworthy is a chain of custody, not a test result.
Jet A-1 to Checklist, Jet A, TS-1 and non-aviation burning kerosene — supplied as seaborne parcels against the governing specification, with the point where our quality obligation ends written into the contract rather than implied.
The desk
One grade. Four documents that define it.
There is no such thing as "Jet A-1" in the abstract. There is Jet A-1 to ASTM D1655, Jet A-1 to DEF STAN 91-091, and Jet A-1 to the AFQRJOS Checklist — which is not a third specification but the more stringent limit of the first two, taken parameter by parameter.
The difference is not academic. Total acidity is capped at 0.10 mg KOH/g under D1655 and at 0.015 mg KOH/g under DEF STAN 91-091. A batch reporting 0.05 is a clean pass against one document, a clear fail against the other, and a fail against the Checklist. If your contract says "Jet A-1" and nothing else, you have not agreed a quality — you have agreed to argue about one later.
So we name the governing document on the offer, before the parcel is fixed. Where a buyer's tender cites one standard and their receiving terminal works to another, we raise it at enquiry rather than letting the Certificate of Quality discover it at discharge.
Grades
What we supply.
Jet A-1 to Checklist (AFQRJOS)
The international civil grade, and the overwhelming majority of what moves as a cargo. AFQRJOS — Aviation Fuel Quality Requirements for Jointly Operated Systems, published by the Joint Inspection Group — is the document the shared airport supply systems actually run on. Fuel meeting it is described as Jet A-1 to Checklist.
The Checklist takes the tighter of ASTM D1655 and DEF STAN 91-091 for each parameter, which is why it is the honest thing to sell against: a parcel that satisfies the Checklist satisfies both parent specifications, and a buyer never has to reconcile two documents on a survey report.
Freeze point is the parameter that separates it commercially. Jet A-1 is capped at −47 °C against Jet A's −40 °C, which is what makes it the grade for long-haul and for anywhere outside the United States.
- Governing documents
- AFQRJOS Issue 35 (19 August 2024), derived from DEF STAN 91-091 Issue 17 (28 June 2024) and the current issue of ASTM D1655. Issues move; we quote against the issue in force on the day of the offer and state it.
- Distillation and volatility
- Flash point 38 °C minimum; density 775–840 kg/m³ at 15 °C; freeze point −47 °C maximum.
- Composition
- Total sulphur 0.30 % m/m maximum; mercaptan sulphur 0.0030 % m/m maximum or a negative doctor test; total aromatics 25 % v/v maximum.
- Combustion
- Smoke point 25 mm minimum; or 18 mm minimum where naphthalenes do not exceed 3.0 % v/v.
- Contaminants and stability
- Total acidity 0.015 mg KOH/g maximum; existent gum 7 mg/100 mL maximum; JFTOT at 260 °C control temperature; particulate contamination 1.0 mg/L maximum.
- Electrical and separation
- Electrical conductivity 50–600 pS/m at point of delivery; microseparometer rating and BOCLE lubricity wear scar 0.85 mm maximum.
- NATO code
- F-35 for the civil grade with static dissipator additive.
Jet A
The United States domestic grade under ASTM D1655. Chemically it is the same cut as Jet A-1; the difference that matters is a freeze point capped at −40 °C rather than −47 °C, and no mandatory static dissipator additive.
Buyers outside the US occasionally ask for Jet A because it prices below Jet A-1 at the refinery gate. Sometimes that is the right call and sometimes the receiving system cannot accept it — a shared airport supply system running to Checklist will not take a −40 °C batch into a common tank. We will tell you which case you are in before you fix the parcel.
- Governing document
- ASTM D1655, current issue, grade Jet A.
- Where it differs
- Freeze point −40 °C maximum; static dissipator additive optional rather than required; total acidity to the D1655 limit of 0.10 mg KOH/g unless the contract specifies tighter.
- Practical constraint
- Not interchangeable with Jet A-1 in a jointly operated system. Commingling downgrades the tank to the lower freeze point.
- Not offered
- Jet B and JP-4 wide-cut grades. The volatility and flash point put them outside what we are willing to move as a commercial parcel.
TS-1 (GOST 10227)
The CIS-specification kerosene, produced to GOST 10227. It is a lighter, more volatile cut than Jet A-1 with a notably lower flash point — 28 °C minimum against 38 °C — and a lower freeze point, below −50 °C.
Two things follow commercially. The flash point puts TS-1 in a different handling and stowage category from Jet A-1 on a number of routes, which is a shipping question before it is a quality one. And it is not a substitute for Jet A-1 into a Checklist system: the specifications are built on different test methods and different limits, and a GOST certificate does not demonstrate conformity to AFQRJOS.
Where a buyer needs TS-1 against a GOST contract, that is a straightforward trade. Where a buyer needs Jet A-1 and has been offered TS-1 as equivalent, it is not, and we will say so.
- Governing document
- GOST 10227, grade TS-1. Certification and test methods are the Russian-standard set, not ASTM.
- Key properties
- Flash point 28 °C minimum; freeze point below −50 °C; higher volatility than Jet A-1.
- Conformity
- A GOST certificate is evidence against GOST. It is not evidence against D1655, DEF STAN 91-091 or the Checklist, and we do not present it as such.
- Origin screening
- Origin and counterparty are screened per consignment before we quote — see Compliance. Where an origin cannot be cleared we decline rather than structure around it.
Non-aviation burning kerosene
The same distillation range, an entirely different product commercially. Burning and illuminating kerosene — paraffin, K1 and K2, lamp oil, heating kerosene — is specified for combustion in a wick or a burner, not in a turbine, and carries none of the aviation quality chain.
This is worth stating clearly because the two are confused constantly. Kerosene sold as heating oil has no JFTOT thermal stability requirement, no conductivity window, no microseparometer rating and no batch release into an airworthiness system. It is cheaper for exactly those reasons. It cannot be uplifted into an aircraft, and any offer that blurs the two is one to walk away from.
- Typical governing documents
- BS 2869 Class C1 and C2 for UK heating and lamp use; ASTM D3699 grades No. 1-K and No. 2-K; national standards elsewhere. Sulphur limit is the usual point of difference — 1-K is the low-sulphur grade suited to unvented appliances.
- Applications
- Domestic and commercial heating, wick and pressure lamps, industrial cleaning and degreasing, solvent and extraction duty, agricultural drying.
- What it is not
- Not aviation turbine fuel, not a Jet A-1 substitute, and never offered as one regardless of how the distillation curve reads.
- Delivery
- Seaborne parcels and ISO tank; drums where the destination requires packed product.
Additives
Approved, listed, and dosed within a cap.
Aviation fuel is one of the few products where you may not improve the goods. Only additives named in the governing specification may be present, only at the concentrations it permits, and the Refinery Certificate of Analysis must declare what was added and how much.
| Additive | Function | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static dissipator (SDA) | Raises electrical conductivity so charge generated in filtration and pumping relaxes rather than accumulating | Mandatory for Jet A-1; optional for Jet A | Conductivity must sit in the 50–600 pS/m window at delivery. Dosing is capped, including cumulative redosing — conductivity decays in storage, and topping up has a ceiling. |
| Fuel system icing inhibitor (FSII) | Depresses the freezing point of free water in the fuel system | Optional civil; standard on military grades | DiEGME, typically 0.10–0.15 % v/v. Only supplied where the contract calls for it. |
| Corrosion inhibitor / lubricity improver | Protects pipework and restores lubricity for pump wear surfaces | Optional, from the qualified products list | Interacts with the microseparometer rating; over-dosing degrades water separation. |
| Antioxidant | Limits peroxide and gum formation, particularly in hydroprocessed streams | Required in some hydroprocessed components | Mandatory in synthesised blending components under D7566. |
| Metal deactivator (MDA) | Chelates trace copper and other metals that catalyse thermal degradation | Optional, capped | Cannot be used to rescue a batch that has already failed JFTOT — a re-tested pass after MDA is not the same as a pass. |
Sustainable aviation fuel
A blend limit is part of the specification, not a target.
SAF is not a fuel. It is a set of synthesised blending components, each approved under its own annex of ASTM D7566 with its own maximum proportion. Blended within that limit and re-certified, the result is ordinary aviation turbine fuel and is handled as such.
| Annex | Pathway | Abbreviation | Max blend |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Fischer-Tropsch hydroprocessed synthesised paraffinic kerosene | FT-SPK | 50 % |
| A2 | Hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids | HEFA-SPK | 50 % |
| A3 | Synthesised iso-paraffins from hydroprocessed fermented sugars | SIP | 10 % |
| A4 | Fischer-Tropsch synthesised kerosene with aromatics | FT-SPK/A | 50 % |
| A5 | Alcohol-to-jet synthesised paraffinic kerosene | ATJ-SPK | 50 % |
| A6 | Catalytic hydrothermolysis jet fuel | CHJ | 50 % |
| A7 | Hydroprocessed hydrocarbons, esters and fatty acids | HC-HEFA-SPK | 10 % |
| A8 | Alcohol-to-jet synthesised kerosene with aromatics | ATJ-SKA | 50 % |
Co-processing is a different mechanism
A refinery can also introduce a renewable feed alongside fossil feed in its own units, and the product is certified directly under ASTM D1655 rather than D7566. Three routes are permitted at up to 5 % v/v of renewable feed: mono-, di- and triglycerides with free fatty acids and esters; Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons; and the hydroprocessed glyceride route. DEF STAN 91-091 permits a higher proportion on the glyceride route than D1655 does — another case where the two parent documents disagree and the Checklist decides.
Co-processed product is on-specification fuel with a biogenic share allocated by mass balance. It is not a D7566 blend and the two should not be described interchangeably.
Certified is not the same as physical
Almost all SAF is traded on a mass-balance or book-and-claim basis. The molecules in your wing are whatever the local supply system holds; the sustainability attribute travels on a Proof of Sustainability. Both can be entirely legitimate, and they are different things — the question a buyer must answer is which one their obligation requires.
We supply the certified co-processed components as a separate stream on their own page, with the full documentation set: Certified co-processed fuel components. Nothing on this page is offered as a sustainability claim.
Mandate context
ReFuelEU, and whose obligation it actually is.
The EU regulation places a rising minimum SAF share on aviation fuel suppliers at Union airports — not on a trader selling a conventional Jet A-1 cargo, and not on the buyer of that cargo. Knowing which side of that line you are on decides whether these numbers are your problem.
| From | Minimum SAF share | Of which synthetic (e-SAF) |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 % | — |
| 2030 | 6 % | 1.2 % |
| 2032 | — | 2 % |
| 2035 | 20 % | 5 % |
| 2040 | 34 % | 10 % |
| 2045 | 42 % | 15 % |
| 2050 | 70 % | 35 % |
Who is caught
Aviation fuel suppliers at Union airports above 800,000 passengers or 100,000 tonnes of cargo a year. Shares are measured on energy content.
Anti-tankering
Aircraft operators must uplift at least 90 % of their annual fuel need at each qualifying Union airport, which closes the option of fuelling outside the EU to avoid the blend.
Flexibility, and its limit
The headline share carries a limited carryover allowance between periods. The synthetic sub-mandate does not — it is met in the period or it is not met.
What does not count
Food- and feed-crop-based biofuels are excluded, as is fuel that cannot demonstrate compliance with the Renewable Energy Directive sustainability criteria.
Other schemes still apply
EU ETS for aviation and CORSIA sit alongside this and are separate obligations with separate accounting. A ReFuelEU compliance does not discharge them.
Our position
We do not advise on your compliance return. We will tell you plainly where a product we are offering does or does not contribute to a given obligation, which is a different and more useful thing.
Scope
Where our obligation ends, in writing.
We trade aviation fuel as seaborne cargo parcels — FOB, CFR, CIF and delivered to a buyer's nominated terminal. We are not an into-plane supplier, we do not operate airport storage, and we do not hold a fuelling quality management system. Anyone who tells you those are the same business is selling you something.
That matters because airworthiness release is a downstream act. The chain from refinery to wing runs through shore tank, airport depot, filtration, recirculation and into-plane checks, each with its own release step and its own accountable party. Our cargo enters that chain at the quality determination point named in the contract; everything after it belongs to the parties who hold those accreditations.
So we write the boundary down. The sampling point, the quality determination point, the inspection agency and the moment risk and quality responsibility transfer all appear in the contract before the parcel is fixed. A buyer who knows exactly where our obligation stops is a buyer who can arrange the rest of the chain properly.
- What we do
- Source, screen, fix and deliver parcels against a named specification and issue with independent inspection and a full documentary set.
- What we do not do
- Into-plane fuelling, airport depot operation, batch release into an airworthiness system, or any representation that a cargo is airworthy at a point beyond the quality determination point.
- What we will confirm
- Whether the receiving terminal you have nominated can actually take the grade, in the stowage and on the timeline proposed — before rather than after.
How to specify
Six lines get you a firm offer.
Jet enquiries arrive more under-specified than any other product on our book, usually as a grade and a tonnage. These six lines let a trader come back with a number instead of a question.
Grade and governing document
Not "Jet A-1" — Jet A-1 to Checklist, to DEF STAN 91-091, or to D1655. Name the issue if your contract fixes one.
Quantity, parcel size and basis
Tonnes or cubic metres, FOB / CFR / CIF / delivered, and whether the volume is one parcel or a term programme with a monthly lifting.
Load and discharge ports
Berth restrictions, draft, and whether the receiving terminal has dedicated or segregated capability for aviation grades.
Additive requirement
SDA as standard on Jet A-1; state explicitly if FSII, corrosion inhibitor or a specific qualified product is required, and at what dose.
Inspection and quality determination point
Which agency, at which point, and whose account. If you have no preference we will propose one and explain why.
Documentary and payment terms
Laycan, the documentary set the destination requires, and the instrument. Aviation parcels are large and the instrument shapes the offer.
Quality
Two certificates, and they are not the same certificate.
Aviation fuel travels with a Refinery Certificate of Quality — the full specification test set on the production batch, naming the additives added and their concentrations — and a Certificate of Analysis at the loading or discharge point, which is the recertification test set on the parcel as shipped.
The first proves the batch was made to specification. The second proves it still is. A buyer offered only one of the two is missing half the evidence, and in a product where a clean tank is the difference between a pass and a rejection, the recertification is the half that catches what happened in between.
- Independent inspection
- Appointed for the cargo — SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek — instructed jointly, with sampling under supervision at the agreed point. Not the supplier's laboratory and not ours.
- Recertification set
- The reduced test set the governing specification permits on receipt, plus appearance, density, flash point, freeze point, conductivity, microseparometer rating and particulates as the parcel's condition requires.
- Retained samples
- Sealed retains held against the parcel, so a later dispute is settled on the fuel rather than on correspondence.
- Documentation per parcel
- Refinery Certificate of Quality, Certificate of Analysis, additive declaration, Certificate of Origin, Safety Data Sheet under REACH / CLP or GHS in the destination language, bill of lading and independent inspection report.
- Transport classification
- UN 1863, Class 3. Stowage, segregation and documentation per IMDG and the applicable national rules; TS-1's lower flash point can change the treatment.
Shipping
The previous cargo decides whether the ship can lift yours.
Jet fuel is the most tank-sensitive clean product in the trade. Vetting the vessel is not a formality bolted onto the fixture — it is the part of the fixture most likely to kill it, and it is settled before the parcel is committed.
| Requirement | Why | What we check before fixing |
|---|---|---|
| Previous cargo history | Residues from the preceding cargoes carry into the parcel; leaded, chemical and detergent-bearing products disqualify a tank | The last three cargoes per tank, with the vessel's cargo record, against the buyer's or the receiving system's acceptance list |
| Tank coating and condition | Epoxy or zinc silicate coating in sound condition; bare steel sheds rust into a product with a 1.0 mg/L particulate limit | Coating type, age, condition survey and any patch repair history |
| Dedicated or segregated lines | Shared pumps, lines and heating coils reintroduce whatever they last carried | Line and pump segregation, drainage arrangements, and whether heating coils are pressure-tested |
| Wall wash and tank inspection | Visual cleanliness is not evidence; surfactant and hydrocarbon residue is found by test | Wall wash results and inspector's tank acceptance before loading commences |
| Nitrogen or inert gas handling | Inert gas from a flue-gas system introduces contaminants into an aviation grade | Inerting arrangement and whether it is acceptable for aviation product |
| First-foot sampling | Catches contamination at the start of loading, when it can still be stopped | First-foot draw and test before loading continues |
Straight answer
What we will tell you before you ask.
- That we are not an into-plane supplier
- We sell cargoes. We do not fuel aircraft, operate airport depots or release batches into an airworthiness system, and we will not let a proposal imply otherwise.
- Where the grade will not be accepted
- If your receiving system runs to Checklist and the economics have pushed you toward Jet A or TS-1, we will tell you it will be rejected at the tank rather than sell you the cheaper parcel.
- Where a certificate does not prove what it appears to
- A GOST certificate is not conformity to AFQRJOS. A refinery certificate without a recertification does not prove the parcel's present condition. A typicals sheet proves nothing at all.
- Where an origin cannot be cleared
- Aviation fuel attracts more sanctions and diversion risk than any other clean product we handle. Origin and counterparty are screened per consignment before we quote, and where it cannot be cleared we decline — see Compliance.
- Where we are not the right counterparty
- If what you actually need is an into-plane contract at a named airport, that is not us, and saying so early is worth more than a quotation you cannot use.
Enquiries
Every enquiry is answered by the desk that handles it.
Send the product, quantity, delivery basis, destination and timing. We revert with availability, an indication and the documentation that accompanies it. Specifications are released once we know who we are speaking with.